Insurance for F1 students in the USA: real quotes from $1.44 a day
- Visa compliant
- Liability included
- Student accommodation covered
A. FruchardCo-Founder & Travel Insurance ExpertLast updated: September 17, 2026Is insurance for F1 students required, and what do our own quotes show?
Insurance for F1 students is not imposed by any federal rule we could find, but almost every US university makes cover a condition of enrolment. Our September 2026 quotes price a nine-month academic year from $394.31, or $1.44 a day.
That single fact changes how you should shop. The F-1 visa is the academic student visa, and Washington leaves the insurance decision to the school that issued your I-20. Two students on the same visa, one in Texas and one in Virginia, can face completely different minimums, different deadlines and different paperwork. There is no national number to hit.
So the useful question is not "what does the F-1 visa require", it is "what does my school require, and what am I still exposed to once its plan starts". We priced the whole catalogue for that stay on 1 September 2026, and the answer splits by where you live today. A student leaving from the European Union gets six plans quoting the academic year, from $394.31 to $1,751.04. A student leaving from India or China, the two largest F-1 nationalities in the world, gets two: World Student at $539.58 and WorldSecure Basic at $1,011.71.
The honest headline before you read any further: these are European student travel and health contracts. Several US universities only accept a plan issued by a US, ACA-compliant insurer, and in those cases no plan on this page will get your school waiver signed. Where these plans genuinely earn their price is the gap before your school cover starts, the evacuation and repatriation cover many campus plans leave out, and your trips outside the United States. Prices and policy wordings on this page were checked in September 2026.
Every year, our experts audit each plan against its binding policy wording: coverage, limits and exclusions, cross-checked with real customer feedback and live market prices. The analysis is fully independent, with zero paid placements and no insurer able to pay to influence a rating. We compare travel insurance across every country and currency, using the plans, prices and cover actually offered in your country, not a single guide translated.
Learn moreWhat is the best insurance for F1 students right now?
The best insurance for F1 students depends on where you live: from the European Union, Go Campus covers the academic year for $394.31 with about $590,000 of emergency medical cover; from India or China, World Student is the entry point at $539.58 with the same medical ceiling.
Our pick for an F-1 academic year
You land in the United States, you get sick or you break something, and you walk into a hospital without wiring money first: that is what these plans buy you, plus a flight home organised and paid for if a doctor says you cannot stay. Go Campus does it over a nine-month academic year, with roughly $590,000 of emergency medical and hospital cover, repatriation at actual cost and 24/7 assistance. It is my first pick for a European student because nothing else in our comparison gets close on price for that level of cover.
If you do not live in Europe, Go Campus will not sell to you, and World Student becomes the answer for the same nine months, at a higher price, with the same medical ceiling and a hospital card that lets the insurer pay the hospital directly. If your university is one of the schools that insists on cover with no annual or lifetime limit, look instead at Safe Campus: it is the only plan we sell that is built for US and Canadian destinations only and pays medical costs at actual cost, but it costs more than four times Go Campus, and its Table of Benefits does apply a deductible and an out-of-pocket cap. Buy before you fly, and read your school’s waiver page first: it decides whether you need this instead of the campus plan, or on top of it.
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Real quotes captured on hellosafe.com for 1 student aged 22, a 9-month academic year (15 September 2026 to 15 June 2027), arrival in the United States, residence in France, shown in US dollars. HelloSafe data, September 2026. Policies are underwritten in Europe: prices and cover limits are shown in dollars, converted at the live exchange rate. Prices move with the length of your stay and your country of residence, not with your age between 18 and 30.
HelloSafe is available as an app inside ChatGPT. Install it from ChatGPT’s Apps tab, then type @HelloSafe followed by your destination and dates to compare travel insurance.
How much does insurance for F1 students cost for a semester or a full year?
Insurance for F1 students costs $219.20 for a European student on a single semester and $394.31 for a full nine-month academic year at the cheapest plan, rising to $1,751.04 for the most expensive plan in our comparison. Students living outside Europe start at $539.58 for the year.
Type of stay | Budget | Average | Premium | Key point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
One semester, from Europe About 5 months, spring term | $219.20 Go Campus | $328.22 Cap Student | $972.80 Safe Campus | Six plans quote this stay |
Academic year, from Europe 9 months, September to June | $394.31 Go Campus | $631.79 Cap Student | $1,751.04 Safe Campus | $1.44 a day at the entry price |
Academic year, from India or China 9 months, September to June | $539.58 World Student | n/a* | $1,011.71 WorldSecure Basic | Only two plans sell outside Europe |
Full 12 months, from Europe Year-round cover | $516.23 Go Campus | $744.93 Cap Student | $2,334.72 Safe Campus | WorldSecure Basic stops at 364 days |
Full 12 months, from India or China Year-round cover | $652.42 World Student | n/a* | n/a* | A single plan quotes this stay |
Same quotes as the table above, captured 1 September 2026, 1 student, arrival in the United States, US dollars.
Three things move the price, and only three. The length of the stay is the big one: the same student pays $172.51 for three months and $516.23 for twelve on Go Campus. Your country of residence is the second, and it works by cutting the shelf rather than raising the price, since two plans out of six sell outside the European Union. Age is the third and it barely matters: we re-priced the nine-month year at 18, 22, 25, 26 and 28 and got identical figures on every plan. Only Safe Studies steps up, from $688.74 to $770.46, once you turn 31, and World Student stops selling at 35.
What insurance for F1 students do US universities actually require?
F1 students have to hold whatever their university requires, because no US federal regulation sets an insurance minimum for the F-1 visa. That is the opposite of the J-1 exchange visitor visa, whose minimums are written into federal law.
We looked for a federal F-1 insurance rule and did not find one, so we will not invent a number for you. What does exist in federal law is the J-1 rule: 22 CFR 62.14 sets medical benefits of at least $100,000 per accident or illness, $25,000 for repatriation of remains, $50,000 for medical evacuation and a deductible capped at $500. Those figures are often quoted online as if they applied to F-1 students. They do not. They are a useful benchmark, nothing more.
What binds you is your school's own policy, and schools differ sharply. Virginia Tech asks international students for a plan with "no annual or lifetime limits on medical, mental health, substance abuse, and prescription medication benefits", an annual deductible of $500 or less, and separately $25,000 of repatriation of remains plus $50,000 of medical evacuation; students who neither enrol nor obtain a waiver are enrolled in the campus plan automatically. UT Austin goes further and only accepts "PPACA-compliant, U.S.-based insurance providers", with a deductible capped at $500 and coinsurance capped at 25%, and it publishes hard waiver deadlines, 4 September for the Fall 2026 term.
The figures above are two real examples, quoted so you can see how far apart schools sit. They are not a US standard and we do not present them as one. The only requirement that binds you is the one on your own university’s international student insurance page, and you should read it before you buy anything, including anything on this page.
Can insurance for F1 students replace the university plan?
Insurance for F1 students bought from a European insurer usually cannot replace a US university plan, because many schools only grant a waiver for a plan issued by a US, ACA-compliant insurer. It can still be the right purchase for the gaps the campus plan leaves open.
Be clear about what you are buying. The plans compared on this page are European travel and study health contracts. They pay hospitals abroad, often directly, and they organise repatriation. They are not US health plans, they have no US provider network, and none of them is described in its wording as PPACA-compliant. Where a school accepts a foreign plan that meets its criteria, one of these can be the answer. Where a school demands a US insurer, it cannot be, and no amount of shopping will change that.
- The arrival gap : your campus plan usually starts on the first day of term, while your F-1 entry can be up to 30 days earlier, and a student plan covers those weeks from $1.44 a day.
- Evacuation and repatriation : every plan in our comparison pays repatriation assistance at actual cost, which is exactly the item schools like Virginia Tech ask you to prove separately.
- Travel outside the United States : spring break in Mexico or a term-break flight home sits outside most campus plans and inside these contracts.
- Exchange and semester students : if you are not enrolled in the campus plan at all, this is your only medical cover in the country.
- A school that accepts foreign cover : Safe Campus is the only plan we sell built for US and Canadian destinations only and it pays medical costs at actual cost, with no stated ceiling.
- A waiver at a US-insurer-only school : UT Austin and others require a PPACA-compliant, US-based provider, and a European contract cannot satisfy that wording.
- Routine and preventive care : these are emergency and hospital contracts, so annual check-ups, vaccinations and campus wellness visits are not what they pay for.
- Anything you already had : pre-existing and chronic conditions are excluded across the shortlist, in plain words in the policy wordings.
- A stay over 12 months : every student plan in our catalogue stops at 365 days, and WorldSecure Basic at 364, so a four-year degree is a series of renewals, not one contract.
- Trip cancellation : not one plan in this comparison includes it, so a cancelled semester and a lost deposit are not covered by the medical contract.
If you want the broader picture beyond the F-1 case, our student travel insurance guide covers exchange, internship and language stays in every destination, while this page stays deliberately on the United States.
What does the small print of insurance for F1 students hide?
The small print of insurance for F1 students holds four traps: a hard 365-day ceiling on every plan, an age limit as low as 34, pre-existing conditions excluded across the board, and a waiting period on one plan if you buy after you have already left home.
Plan | Maximum stay | Age limit | Sold to students living outside Europe | Destinations accepted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Go Campus Cheapest for a European student | 365 days | Up to 35 | No | Worldwide |
World Student The worldwide entry point | 365 days | Up to 34 | Yes | Worldwide |
Safe Campus Built for North America | 365 days | 14 to 39 | No | United States and Canada only |
Cap Student Studies interruption included | 365 days | Up to 39 | No | Worldwide |
Safe Studies Studies interruption included | 365 days | Up to 39 | No | Worldwide |
WorldSecure Basic The lowest medical ceiling | 364 days | Up to 39 | Yes | Worldwide |
Duration, renewal and the four-year degree
No student contract in our catalogue runs longer than a year, so a bachelor's degree is a chain of annual purchases. The wordings say it plainly. World Student is written for "temporary visas with a maximum duration of twelve months", entered into "for a firm period without tacit renewal", and cannot be cancelled and refunded mid-term. Go Campus is "valid for a maximum of 12 months and can be renewed once for a further 12 months, subject to prior approval by Assur Travel", which is a manual step, not an automatic rollover. WorldSecure Basic simply disappears from our comparison once the stay passes 364 days: we re-ran the same quote for 15 September 2026 to 14 September 2027 and the engine returned "Trip duration too long".
Waiting periods and pre-existing conditions
WorldSecure Basic applies "a waiting period of 8 days is applied to all benefits from the date of subscription" if you subscribe after departure, which is exactly the situation of a student who lands first and shops later. World Student has no waiting period in its wording but excludes pre-existing illness in capitals, including "pre-existing illnesses diagnosed and/or treated, resulting in hospitalisation within the six months prior to the request for assistance". WorldSecure Basic excludes "congenital disability, hereditary diseases, and chronic illnesses". If you manage asthma, diabetes or a mental health condition, that is the clause that decides whether these plans are useful to you, and the answer is usually no for the condition itself.
Deductibles, and one ceiling that is smaller than it looks
Go Campus applies an excess of about $35 per condition, but only on medical expenses incurred in your country of residence, so it does not bite on care received in the United States. Safe Campus does carry a per-claim deductible and an annual out-of-pocket cap in its Table of Benefits; we read that table twice and got the two figures reported the other way round each time, so we are not printing either number here, and you should read the current Table of Benefits before you buy. Cap Student is the sharpest catch: it is sold as unlimited medical cover with no ceiling, but the binding wording sets a limit of about $1.18 million for hospitalisation over 24 hours or childbirth and about $17,700 for everything else, meaning outpatient, dental and optical care, across the whole membership period. For an F-1 student whose expensive care is more likely to be a long outpatient course than a month in intensive care, that second ceiling is the one that matters.
Cap Student, Safe Campus and Safe Studies all advertise studies interruption cover of about $17,700. Cap Student’s wording pays unused study and accommodation costs pro rata only after hospitalisation of more than 30 consecutive days, a medical repatriation organised by the insurer, or an early return home after a family death that the insurer organised and paid for, and only with the insurer’s prior authorisation. Failing a semester, changing your mind or a visa refusal are not in that list.
What does insurance for F1 students cover, and what is left out?
Insurance for F1 students covers emergency medical and hospital care in the United States, direct payment to the hospital, repatriation at actual cost, personal liability of about $5.3 million and baggage. It does not cover trip cancellation, routine care or anything pre-existing.
Guarantee | Status | Best limit in our shortlist | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
Emergency medical and hospital care Abroad, accident or illness | Covered by every plan | Actual cost (Safe Campus, Cap Student, Safe Studies); about $590,000 (Go Campus, World Student) | WorldSecure Basic stops at about $354,000 |
Direct billing No money advanced at the hospital | Included in every plan | Hospital paid directly by the assistance company | World Student's wording adds "unless the insured is required to advance the payment" |
Repatriation and medical evacuation Flight home organised by the insurer | Covered by every plan | Actual cost | Call the assistance line before anything is booked, or it is not covered |
Studies interruption Unused tuition and accommodation | Three plans out of six | About $17,700 (Cap Student, Safe Campus, Safe Studies) | Only after a long hospitalisation, a repatriation or a family death |
Personal liability Damage you cause to someone else | Covered by every plan | About $5.3 million | Rental liability, for damage to your student room, only on Cap Student, Safe Campus and Safe Studies, at about $118,000 |
Baggage Theft, loss, damage in transit | Covered by every plan | About $2,360 | WorldSecure Basic caps at about $1,360, and electronics sit under a separate $295 sub-limit on two plans |
Trip cancellation Semester cancelled before departure | Not covered by any plan | None | A cancelled semester and a lost tuition deposit are outside every contract here |
Routine and preventive care Check-ups, vaccinations | Not covered | None | This is what the campus plan is for, not these contracts |
Two absences are worth naming, because students expect them and they are simply not there. The first is trip cancellation: not one of the six plans includes it, so if your visa is refused or your admission falls through after you have paid a deposit, this contract pays nothing. The second is the daily reality of being ill rather than injured: repeat physiotherapy, a long course of specialist appointments, dental work. Those sit in the outpatient bucket, which is where the sub-limits live, and where the campus plan is usually stronger than anything on this page.
Why is insurance for F1 students so hard to skip in the United States?
Insurance for F1 students is hard to skip because a US hospital day cost an average of $3,297.26 in 2024, so a week on a ward can outrun a full year of tuition for an uninsured student.
That figure is the average adjusted expense per inpatient day at US community hospitals in 2024, published by KFF, from the American Hospital Association Annual Survey. It is a national average across all payers, not a bill you would personally receive, and prices vary enormously by state and hospital. We are quoting it because it is the most defensible number we could source. The many "average emergency room visit" figures circulating online trace back to commercial blogs with no primary source, so they are not on this page.
The second reason is cash flow rather than cost. Every plan in our comparison pays the hospital directly through its assistance company, so you are not asked to put five figures on a card and claim it back months later. On a student budget that is often the difference between using the cover and avoiding the hospital. The condition attached to it is always the same: you call the assistance number before treatment is arranged, and you keep the insurer's card with you.
Can a credit card replace insurance for F1 students?
A credit card cannot replace insurance for F1 students, because card travel cover is written for short trips and stops after a fixed number of days per journey, typically well short of a nine-month academic year.
The structural problem is the trip length, not the ceiling. Card policies pay for a trip, defined in days from departure, and an academic year is not a trip in that sense: by the time you are in your second term, the cover has expired even though you have not been home. On top of that, card medical cover is capped far below the plans compared here, it usually asks you to pay first and claim afterwards rather than having the hospital billed directly, and its cancellation cover recognises only a short list of reasons. If you want the detail on what a card really includes, read our guide to the travel cover included with a credit card before you rely on it.
We are not putting card ceilings on this page. The card records for European issuers in our database are not published yet, and we do not quote figures we cannot show you the source for. Read the insurance booklet your bank issued with your card, and check two lines: the maximum number of days covered per trip, and whether medical expenses abroad are paid directly or reimbursed.
When should you buy insurance for F1 students, and how?
Buy insurance for F1 students after you have read your university's waiver page and before you fly, because one plan applies an eight-day waiting period if you subscribe once you have already left home.
- Open your university's international student insurance page and write down three things: the minimum cover, the deductible cap, and whether a non-US insurer is accepted at all.
- Note the waiver deadline. UT Austin closes Fall 2026 waivers on 4 September, and a missed deadline means automatic enrolment in the campus plan for the whole term.
- Compare with your real dates. Enter your departure and return dates, your country of residence and your age in the comparison form on this page, and pick the study and internship intent so the student contracts are the ones priced.
- Check the length of your stay against 365 days. If your programme runs longer, plan the renewal now rather than discovering the ceiling mid-year.
- Subscribe before departure and download the certificate. It is issued immediately and it is the document your international office will ask for.
- Save the assistance number in your phone before you land, because on every plan here the insurer must be called before treatment is organised for the direct-payment promise to hold.
Two edge cases we are asked about constantly. On post-completion OPT you are no longer enrolled, your campus plan normally ends with graduation, and the contracts on this page are sold for a study or internship stay: we could not confirm from the wordings that an OPT period qualifies, so ask the insurer in writing before you rely on it. For F-2 dependants, the plans here are priced per person, and the schools that require cover for the student generally require it for dependants too; price each family member separately rather than assuming a family rate. For everything that is not F-1 specific, our general travel insurance guide covers the mechanics of claims, ceilings and exclusions.
What else should you know about insurance for F1 students?
No federal regulation sets an insurance minimum for the F-1 visa, and a consular officer will not ask for a policy at the interview. In practice it is mandatory anyway, because almost every US university makes cover a condition of enrolment and enrols you in its own plan automatically if you do nothing. The requirement comes from the school, not from immigration.
Sometimes. Schools that publish criteria (a medical minimum, a deductible cap, evacuation and repatriation cover) may accept a foreign plan that meets them. Schools that require a PPACA-compliant, US-based insurer, as UT Austin does, will not, whatever the plan covers. Read your own waiver page before buying, because that page is the only thing that decides it.
From $394.31 for a nine-month year if you live in the European Union, which is about $1.44 a day, up to $1,751.04 for the most expensive plan in our comparison. If you live in India or China, the entry price is $539.58. These are real quotes captured on 1 September 2026 for a student aged 22 arriving in the United States.
Barely. We re-priced the same nine-month academic year at 18, 22, 25, 26 and 28 and every plan returned the same figure. Only Safe Studies rises once you turn 31, from $688.74 to $770.46, and World Student stops selling at 35. What really moves the price is how long you stay and which country you live in.
That gap is one of the strongest reasons to buy a student plan. An F-1 entry can be up to 30 days before your programme starts, while most campus plans begin on the first day of term. A plan bought before departure covers those weeks from $1.44 a day, and it is active the moment your policy start date arrives.
We cannot promise that. The contracts compared here are sold for a study or internship stay, and none of the wordings we read states whether post-completion OPT qualifies. Your campus plan usually ends at graduation, so ask the insurer in writing before your status changes rather than assuming the cover continues.
No, these plans are priced and issued per person. Schools that require cover for the F-1 student generally require it for accompanying dependants as well, so price each family member separately. Note that on some plans the age limit (34 on World Student) also applies to the person being insured.
No. Every plan in this comparison excludes them, and the wordings are blunt about it. World Student excludes pre-existing illnesses diagnosed or treated with hospitalisation in the six months before the request for assistance. WorldSecure Basic excludes congenital disability, hereditary diseases and chronic illnesses. If you are managing an ongoing condition, the campus plan is usually the better route for it.
You renew. Every student contract in our catalogue caps at 365 days, and WorldSecure Basic at 364, so a multi-year degree is a series of annual policies rather than one long contract. Go Campus can be renewed once for a further 12 months, but only with the insurer’s prior approval, so treat renewal as a diary entry, not an automatic rollover.
Yes on most of them. Four of the six plans in this comparison accept worldwide destinations, so a spring break trip or a flight home stays inside the contract. The exception is Safe Campus, which is written for the United States and Canada only. Campus plans, by contrast, usually stop at the US border, which is one reason students hold both.
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